does GOP = BORG?

I grew up with a story of America as a “melting pot,” which I incorrectly pictured as a stew pot in which the carrots and corn kernels and pieces of potato all retained their individual identities as they contributed to a wholesome and filling meal. Later, as a fan of the Star Trek tv series. I learned of the Borg and assimilation and the phrase “Resistance is futile.” As I read about and see stories of the Republican National Convention and their nominees for president and vice-president, and Project 2025, I wonder when and how the Borg landed and assimilated MAGAts using nanoprobes and what that means for our future if they are not promptly and resoundly driven back to wherever they came from. If you wonder what life as an assimilee might be like, check news stories about life in Russia, China, Hungary or Gaza.

Another part of the story I grew up with in Massachusetts is that Colonial America was largely founded by religious emigrants (who didn’t invade and usurp the territories of indigenous peoples). For those emigrants, the separation of church and state was endemic to the creation of a country from separate colonies. To become a christian nationalist country in November would, in my opinion, put US in BORGian territory and I want no part of it or those who would assimilate US that way. 

If you believe I’m overreacting to the deconstruction of a political party in the creation of an alien Borganization, let me leave you with these thoughts:

• "I’m from Appalachia. JD Vance doesn’t represent us – he only represents himself"
• "Hillbillies Need No Elegy"
• “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” and, it could be this:

Freedom

By Jill McDonough

I talk to the students in jail about freedom, how in America

we obsess over it, write it over flags on T-shirts, spread

it around under eagles. It has something to do with guns

and fireworks, Harley-Davidsons, New Hampshire, living free

until you’re dead. I tell the students I think the people

fetishizing freedom don’t mean it. That they really mean

look over here, away from all the slavery

we did, away from all the jail! I tell them they

are the experts, ask them to write what freedom means:

privacy is freedom and if  you feel held back, afraid

to do something, you’re not completely free.   No fear

of  loss. No fear of  hunger, no fear of  pain.   A body

to call my own, a voice driven by my own mind.

The security of a dry, warm place to sleep.   To own

my own time left here.   Being able to hold my son

at night.   Showering in private.   Freedom to me

is having the choice to walk away from a fight. Freedom

a work in progress. Everyday freedom, the real work for us all.

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